Hi Christian, we have this problem:
Our pc based supervision system saves the robot programs in a database by sending the robot this command: save/p/l/r/s.....
In this way we get a quick semi-backup to reload for a model change. Unfortunately, if we open one of these files with Kide, an empty ghost IFP is created. When we load a saved file that was opened with Kide, we get the IFP deleted.
Thanks in advance.

Hi Luke,

this a known behavior and I didn't expected any trouble with it. No panel data means an empty panel.

If you left the panel data out of your backups, your backups aren't complete. On a model change you cannot only upload your backup but you need to upload the panel data from a different place.

I will check if I can leave the panel data untouched if there's no data in it.

I've had a look at the sources regarding "generating IFPanelData". Your suggested solution was still there until some time ago. But there was a problem if someone wants to remove the interface panel data. Please see this bug report: --> here <--

In short: no ifpanel data means no ifpanel which results in an empty ifpanel. Otherwise you could not fully remove the interface panel.

I tend to keep the current behavoir, because it's the way K-IDE handles the data in a project file. If you use K-IDE for generating, downloading, editing, uploading, saving, loading and backing up your project data, you will be save. Even if you use ordinary or full backup files, you will be save. Of cause K-IDE cannot know what you want to do if you use partial project files where something is missing. In that case there's a risk of loosing your IFPanelData (and maybe others).

BTW: Have you noticed the “export” function in the context menu of the AS tree root node? There you can deselect the interface panel wich totally ignores the IFP data and everything you don't want to see in the export file.

Hi Christian, if I want to initialize the IFP I use the IFPINIT command. Even if I load a file without variables (positions, reals etc.) it does not mean that I want to delete the existing variables.

Thanks for the support.

You are right, but there's a difference between IFPanelData and variable data: if you transfer an empty variable list like:

.REALS
.END

your will not delete all variables, but simply do nothing. In case of IFPanelData, if you transfer:

.INTER_PANEL_D
.END

you deleted the interface panel.

One bug report in the past was about removing "the last" push button (or any other field data) from the interface panel was not possible, because empty panel data was ignored.

I've had a long discussion with my colleague about that topic and I partly had to change my mind. One of the most important points in the K-IDE is the principle: The K-IDE should not delete anything unexpectedly. The interface panel is one example where this may happen (like in your case), so the should be something that keep your data more save. For the future I would like to implement the following:

1. The IFPanelData section will be ignored in "normal" save operations if there is no panel data defined. So when saving a project file where no panel data is defined, no empty panel data section will be included. Even if this file may not include all the needed project data, it will not destroy any existing panel data on your robot.
2. If you explicitly select to transfer panel data and the is no panel data defined, an empty panel data section will be transfered and the panel data on the robot will be deleted. Per default the interface panel data will be deselected when sending project data to the robot if there is no interface panel data available in the project file. If you select interface panel data in that situation, there will be a warning reminding you that the panel data is empty an will delete all panel data on the robot.
   (German, sorry!)
   If you select to transfer the panel data from the AS tree or from within the panel builder, empty panel data will be send if there is no data defined, without any warning.

Thanks Christian for the support.